European Commission Move Away from Climate Protection Goals

Green Fade-Out:Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals

Europe may be backing away from its ambitious climate protection goals.

The EU's reputation as a model of environmental responsibility may soon be history. The European Commission wants to forgo ambitious climate protection goals and pave the way for fracking -- jeopardizing Germany's touted energy revolution in the process.

The climate between Brussels and Berlin is polluted, something European Commission officials attribute, among other things, to the "reckless" way German Chancellor Angela Merkel blocked stricter exhaust emissions during her re-election campaign to placate domestic automotive manufacturers like Daimler and BMW. This kind of blatant self-interest, officials complained at the time, is poisoning the climate.

But now it seems that the climate is no longer of much importance to the European Commission, the EU's executive branch, either. Commission sources have long been hinting that the body intends to move away from ambitious climate protection goals. On Tuesday, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported as much.

At the request of Commission President José Manuel Barroso, EU member states are no longer to receive specific guidelines for the development ofrenewable energy. The stated aim of increasing the share of green energy across the EU to up to 27 percent will hold. But how seriously countries tackle this project will no longer be regulated within the plan. As of 2020 at the latest -- when the current commitment to further increase the share of green energy expires -- climate protection in the EU will apparently be pursued on a voluntary basis.

Climate Leaders No More?

With such a policy, the European Union is seriously jeopardizing its global climate leadership role. Back in 2007, when Germany held the European Council presidency, the body decided on a climate and energy legislation package known as the "20-20-20" targets, to be fulfilled by the year 2020. They included:

a 20 percent reduction in EU greenhouse gas emissions;

raising the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources to 20 percent;

and a 20 percent improvement in the EU's energy efficiency.

All of the goals were formulated relative to 1990 levels. And the targets could very well be met. But in the future, European climate and energy policy may be limited to just a single project: reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Commission plans also set no new binding rules for energy efficiency.

Welcome, Frackers

In addition, the authority wants to pave the way in the EU for the controversial practice of fracking, according to the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The report says the Commission does not intend to establish strict rules for the extraction of shale gas, but only minimum health and environmental standards.

The plans will be officially presented next Wednesday ahead of an EU summit meeting in March. Observers, however, believe that a decision is unlikely to come until the summer at the earliest. But action must be taken this year: At the beginning of 2015, a climate conference will take place in Paris at which a global climate agreement is to be hashed out.

The European Parliament is unlikely to be pleased with the Commission's plans. Just at the beginning of January, a strong parliamentary majority voted to reduce carbon emissions EU-wide by 40 percent by 2030 and to raise the portion of renewables to at least 30 percent of energy consumption.

Germany's Energy Goals at Risk

The Commission's move further isolates Germany. Merkel's government, a "grand coalition" of her conservatives and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), seeks to increase the share of renewables in the country's energy mix to 60 percent by 2036. As reported in the latest issue of SPIEGEL, Sigmar Gabriel, SPD chair and minister of energy and economics, recently urged Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger to put forth mandatory expansion targets for renewable energy in the EU by 2030. Europe "can't afford to pass up this opportunity," Gabriel wrote.

But within the Commission, the ambitious project has long been controversial. The same goes for EU member states, as Gabriel recently discovered. Prior to Christmas the minister, together with eight colleagues from throughout the EU, called for a "renewables target" in a letter to the Commission. But some countries, such as France, joined the appeal only hesitantly at the time. Paris might prefer instead to rely more heavily on nuclear power in order to meet stringent carbon emission requirements.

Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, a German from Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, has also shown reluctance. Rather than setting clear goals for the share of renewables, he wants fixed targets only for the reduction of carbon emissions -- and he is skeptical even of the 40 percent target proposed by Climate Commissioner Hedegaard.

The Berlin-based German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) writes in a recent study that more moderate EU climate goals and less support for renewable energies could have a real impact on Germany's so-called Energiewende, or energy revolution. "In such a context," writes the nonpartisan think tank, "it will be increasingly difficult for Germany to successfully carry out pioneering policies."

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One should not confuse the goal of climate protection and the goal of increasing renewables.
Climate protection only means that less CO2 should be emitted. But this can be achieved by different means.
Renewable energy in the [...]

One should not confuse the goal of climate protection and the goal of increasing renewables.
Climate protection only means that less CO2 should be emitted. But this can be achieved by different means.
Renewable energy in the form of windmills or solar panels is only one way to achieve climate protection goals.
It makes perfect sense for the commission to focus on what is in agreement between all involved countries, which is climate protection ; and to let member states make their own choices in areas where different solutions are possible.

2. Europe to Ditch Climate Protection Goals

davies_john51 01/15/2014

Is it not obvious with the extreme weather patterns seen across Europe, that global warming is still a serious issue.

Is it not obvious with the extreme weather patterns seen across Europe, that global warming is still a serious issue.

3. Hydraulic Fracking coming to Germany

Jacobsong 01/15/2014

Frackenzie Duetche? Ya-vool Mein Hairbrainz!

Frackenzie Duetche? Ya-vool Mein Hairbrainz!

4. Cooling towers.

zwert 01/15/2014

It's a very clever (if egregious) juxtaposition, placing windmills and cooling towers more or less side by side, but this image depends on a misapprehension, namely that cooling towers emit smoke; they do not; cooling towers emit [...]

It's a very clever (if egregious) juxtaposition, placing windmills and cooling towers more or less side by side, but this image depends on a misapprehension, namely that cooling towers emit smoke; they do not; cooling towers emit steam.

5. Wind energy a failure

billslycat 01/15/2014

Wind energy should never have been part of the goal. Wind Turbines fail as a solution to both global warming and meeting our energy needs. It's as simple as the wind often doesn't blow at high enough speeds to spin the blades, or [...]

Wind energy should never have been part of the goal. Wind Turbines fail as a solution to both global warming and meeting our energy needs. It's as simple as the wind often doesn't blow at high enough speeds to spin the blades, or create significant power from the spinning. Every MW of wind energy must be matched with a MW of fossil fuel generation, called spinning reserve, to make up for the shortfall. Here are a few articles explaining this and more:
1) Energy blow as wind power fuels pollution
http://tinyurl.com/kb43eyf
2) Wind isn’t reducing carbon emissions
http://tinyurl.com/7jmcyay
3) The dirty secret of Britain's power madness: Polluting diesel generators built in secret by foreign companies to kick in when there's no wind for turbines
http://tinyurl.com/nfkflzx
4) Reality Check: Germany's Defective Green Energy Game Plan
http://tinyurl.com/mwox2hj
5) Study: Wind Power Raises CO2 Emissions
http://tinyurl.com/k3cp6lt
6) Subsidizing CO2 Emissions via Windpower: The Ultimate Irony
http://tinyurl.com/5wwy7wq
7) Government Lab Finds Wind Energy Not Meeting Carbon Emission Goals
http://tinyurl.com/7q5n9v9
8) Power struggle: Green energy versus a grid that's not ready
http://tinyurl.com/lgrnsbm
And then there's the fact that wind turbines sited near people's homes severely imapcts the health of many of those living close.
1) Wind Turbine Noise, Sleep Quality, and Symptoms of Inner Ear Problems
http://tinyurl.com/mqxtvx8
2) Wind Turbines can be Hazardous to Human Health
http://tinyurl.com/amw4lxz
3) U.S. government has known about Wind Turbine Syndrome since 1987 (U.S. Dept. of Energy)
http://tinyurl.com/jwedc37
And wind turbines kill more birds - threatened eagles, hawks, falcons, osprey, etc. - than you could ever imagine:
1) Wind turbines kill up to 39 million birds a year!
http://tinyurl.com/dxagmzo
2) US Wind Turbines Kill Over 600,000 Bats A Year (And Plenty Of Birds Too)
http://tinyurl.com/nyo8ru3
Wind energy is a sham and only the wind industry, certain politicians, and their crony capitalist associates benefit. However, they are very good at sales propaganda.